Welcome

Hello and welcome to my moth Blog. I now reside in a small village in East Cambridgeshire called Fordham. My Blog's aim is to promote and encourage others to participate in the wonderful hobby that is Moth-trapping.
Moth records are vital for building a picture of our ecosystem around us, as they really are the bottom of the food chain. They are an excellent early indicator of how healthy a habitat is. I openly encourage people to share their findings via social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter & Instagram.
So why do we do it? well for some people it is to get an insight into the world of Moths, for others it is to build a list of species much like 'Twitching' in the Bird world. The reason I do it....you just never know what you might find when you open up that trap! I hope to show what different species inhabit Cambridgeshire and neighbouring counties.
On this Blog you will find up-to-date records and pictures.
I run a trap regularly in my garden and also enjoy doing field trips to various localities over several different counties.
Please also check out the links in the sidebar to the right for other people's Blogs and informative Websites.
Thanks for looking and happy Mothing!

KEY

NFY = New Species For The Year
NFG = New Species For The Garden
NEW! = New Species For My Records

Any Species highlighted in RED signifies a totally new species for my records.

If you have any questions or enquiries then please feel free to email me
Contact Email : bensale@rocketmail.com

My Latest Notables and Rarities

Sunday 16 October 2016

Final frolics on the farm

The last trapping effort of the year at my parent's farm resulted in me picking up a couple of nice species.
The weather was good if a tad windy but mild all the same and come the morning it was once again challenging going through the traps as Wasps and Hornets were everywhere.
Pick of the bunch was a stunning Dusky-lemon Sallow, the only one I have seen this year there. Some years I have done very well for this species. I put it down to not regularly trapping there at the right time of year, as when I use to live there I would trap sometimes 4 times a week.

Bulrush Wainscot was also a nice surprise, a species I have recorded on the farm before as well as Webb's, Large, Southern and Fen amongst the less common Wainscot species. This must be to do with the fact that there is a large moat with a couple of ditches about a 1/4 of a mile directly North of the farm.
Other than that, numbers were down in general, apart from Setaceous Hebrew Character of which I counted 600 over 2 traps! Surely migrants boosting the local populations.

Also before all of the mothy action took place, my Dad showed me a Longhorn Beetle he had found earlier. I was pretty sure that it didn't belong to the family Cerambycidae, swinging more to Cantharidae. I was wrong too! It was from the family Lycidae And it is one of just two species in the family that are represented here in the UK. 
Quite a scarce Beetle too and one that I had never encountered before.

Catch Report - 13/09/16 - Farmland - Braughing Friars - 2x 125w MV Robinson Trap 1x 160w MBT Robinson Trap 1x 80w Actinic Briefcase Trap & 1x 40w Actinic/26w BLB Trap

Macro Moths - 34 Species

Angle Shades
Barred Sallow
Black Rustic
Blood-vein
Brimstone Moth
Brindled Green
Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing
Brown-spot Pinion
Bulrush Wainscot
Burnished Brass
Centre-barred Sallow
Common Marbled Carpet
Common Wainscot
Copper Underwing
Double-striped Pug
Dusky-lemon Sallow
Dusky Thorn
Flame Shoulder
Garden Carpet
Green Carpet
Large Yellow Underwing
Latticed Heath
Lesser Yellow Underwing
Light Emerald
Lunar Underwing
Mouse Moth
Rosy Rustic
Sallow
Setaceous Hebrew Character
Silver-Y
Small Square-spot
Snout
Vine's Rustic
Willow Beauty

Micro Moths - 31 Species

Acleris forsskaleana
Acleris sparsana
Acleris variegana
Agapeta hamana
Anthophila fabriciana
Archips podana
Argyresthia semifusca
Blastobasis adustella
Caloptilia alchimiella/robustella
Cameraria ohridella
Celypha lacunana
Cochylis hybridella
Enarmonia formosana
Epinotia ramella
Epinotia tenerana
Epiphyas postvittana
Eudonia angustea
Eudonia pallida
Hofmannophila pseudospretella
Mompha epilobiella
Mompha subbistrigella
Monopis weaverella
Nephopteryx angustella
Nomophila noctuella
Plutella xylostella
Prays fraxinella
Tinea semifulvella
Udea ferrugalis
Ypsolopha parenthesella
Ypsolopha scabrella
Ypsolopha sequella

Sallow f.flavescens














Dusky-lemon Sallow














Bulrush Wainscot










Lunar Underwing














Epinotia tenerana











Enarmonia formosana











Platycis minutus




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